The African Development Bank Group has signed an agreement to make a $25 million equity investment in the Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), marking the Bank Group's return as a shareholder in the global fund founded by development finance institutions to manage currency risk in emerging and frontier markets.
The signing took place in the offices of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague.
The investment, to be deployed in two tranches, will reinforce TCX's capital base, enhance its risk-bearing capacity, and expand its ability to offer hedging instruments in illiquid and underserved African currencies, for which conventional hedging solutions are unavailable or prohibitively costly.
The equity participation is expected to help crowd in additional development finance institutions and private investors, reduce currency mismatches for borrowers, and support sustainable growth across key sectors including infrastructure, energy, microfinance, small and medium-sized enterprises, and the public sector. The African Development Bank Group's Board approved the investment on 17 September 2025.
Akane Zoukpo Sanankoua, African Development Bank Group Division Manager for Capital Markets Development, signed on behalf of the institution. She said: "This investment marks the Bank's return to TCX as a shareholder and reflects our strong confidence in its development mandate and impact. With this investment, we are supporting more resilient financing for African economies and reducing currency mismatch, which is one of the structural drivers of debt distress."
The Bank Group was a founding shareholder of TCX in 2007. The fund's current investor base includes Dutch development bank FMO, the International Finance Corporation, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, German development Bank KfW and other development finance institutions, the European Commission and the Dutch, Swiss, British, French, and German governments. Since its inception, TCX has hedged more than $19 billion globally in notional amounts, including $4.7 billion across 31 African countries, with a strong presence in fragile and low-income markets.
TCX Chief Executive Officer Ruurd Brouwer signed for the fund. Welcoming the investment, he said, "We are proud to welcome the African Development Bank back as a shareholder. The Bank was one of TCX's founding investors in 2007, and its return reflects a shared conviction that currency risk mitigation is essential to unlocking resilient financing across Africa. With the Bank's unparalleled presence across the continent, we can together ensure that investments in Africa's future are free from currency risk."
Jerome Larosch, Head of Division, International Financial Institutions at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also welcomed the strengthened cooperation. "We are very proud to see that two of our close partners, the African Development Bank and TCX, are intensifying their collaboration," he said. "Through this new investment, the African Development Bank shows that it is committed to our joint goals for sustainable development on the African continent. As a government we believe that innovations like TCX are an excellent addition to the efforts of multilateral development banks, and we applaud this shared agenda."
The investment aligns with the Bank Group's Ten-Year Strategy 2024-2033 as well as its strategic objectives to scale up access to capital and support local currency financing. Additionally, it complements the Bank Group's broader capital markets agenda, including support for local currency bond markets, credit enhancement solutions, and private sector financing in local currency.
